Roger Ebert has written in his Chicago Sun-Times blog a strong indictment against the purveyors of subtle (and not so subtle) lies in today’s political process.

This is the best line: “Our political immune system has only one antibody, and that is the truth.”

Put up or shut up

This many Americans did not arrive at such conclusions on their own. They were persuaded by a relentless process of insinuation, strategic silence and cynical misinformation. Most of the leaders in this process have been cautious to avoid actually saying Obama is a Muslim. They speak in coded words and allow the implications to sink in. I recently watched Glenn Beck speaking at great length about Obama’s Muslim father, but you would not have learned from Beck that the father, who Obama met only once, was not a practicing Muslim in any sense.

Rush Limbaugh has told his listeners he can find “no evidence” that Obama is a Christian. In Paul Krugman’s op-ed column in the New York Times on 8/29, Limbaugh is quoted: “Imam Hussein Obama, is probably the best anti-American president we’ve ever had.” Limbaugh obviously doesn’t believe Obama is an imam. How many of his listeners realize that? Is he concerned that his words will be taken seriously?
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I Just finished reading Pat Conroy’s latest book South of Broad on my iPad’s Kindle app and as ever since I read my first one in 1983 (The Lords of Discipline), am enthralled at the magic of his words and of his story-telling abilities.

I loaded the Netflix app yesterday and ended up watching a couple of movies on my iPad (Zombieland anyone?). Even as big of a geek as I am, I was still amazed that something just seems to work—with no fiddling, no settings and no grief.

I also watched one on my big screen using PS3 as the streamer. Blockbuster—you are toast.

Mormon Church Fined for Prop 8 Spending :: EDGE Boston.

“The church appreciates the fairness and consideration with which the Fair Political Practices Commission has addressed this oversight,” the statement said. “In the last two weeks leading up to the election, the church mistakenly overlooked the daily reporting requirement and instead reported those contributions together in a later filing.”

Mother Jones has published a nice piece on Fred Karger — the political operative who unmasked the LDS church’s participation in the California Prop 8 initiative.

An excerpt:

As the battle over Prop 8 raged, Karger continued to expose donors and work the press. He tipped off the Wall Street Journal about the Mormons’ involvement, and in September 2008 the paper broke the story]. And he kept finding new ways to hound his adversaries: In monitoring post-election campaign finance reports, he noticed that the Mormon church was only reporting $2,078 in nonmonetary contributions to the Prop 8 effort. That didn’t square given that the church had mobilized a huge number of volunteers (many of them former missionaries with ample door-knocking experience), brought in busloads of supporters from Utah, arranged satellite broadcasts of church leaders, and produced a host of slick ads plus a top-notch website.